We know many of you don’t like ads with your Cheezburger. But those ads pay for our servers and the salaries of our staff. (And cat food!) We’ve put a ton of effort into making Cheezburger and KnowYourMeme faster to load. We do our best to eliminate bad ads, like those that start audio automatically.

But the stark truth is that advertising is our life blood.

Our mission at Cheezburger is to “Give the World 5 minutes of happiness a day”. If you’re reading this, we bet you agree that we’re pretty good at delivering on that mission. We don’t want to charge you to visit Cheezburger, because well, where would the happiness be in that? But if our ads are blocked, we can’t afford to put out the product.

Please disable your Ad Blocker for Cheezburger and KnowYourMeme or add us to your whitelist.

You brought up a lot of important points everyone should consider. This company gives all of us a FREE place to hang out for as long as we want. It’s not a 501C (and if you think about the 501Cs, they’re constantly fund raising! Do we want to be telemarketed for a donation? ) because even THEY need to make money. My question to those who are not wanting to see ads, would YOU work for free? Even if you say yes, little annoyances like rent, new equipment and the electric bill, all need to be paid. How do you think ICHC should generate income. And for the sake of this discussion, let’s just say the staff should be paid. There are some annoying ad before that, let’s face it, were soft porn. We complained and Cheezburger listened. So before we get too annoyed, let’s see what WE can do to help keep the lights on.
I have a question for the Cheezheads. When I *GASP!* click on a link from the advertisers, do you get paid for that or are you only paid if I buy something? Either way, count me in. Cuz I love this site!!!!

The problem for me is the “bad ads”. A couple months ago I turned off adblock on my phone and was hit with ads saying I was infected by a virus and wouldn’t let me leave the ad unless I download a remover app. Turned on adblock, no “bad ad” for over a week. Turned off, “bad ad” back the same day. I even went so far as to wipe my phone. Over the years if I am going to get a “bad ad” on my desktop or mobile, it has been close to 100% from Cheezburger. Forgive me if I don’t trust you guys and the ad services you use. I had to take a couple days away from Cheezburger when Adblock put out bad definitions a couple months ago. Again, had to deal with “bad ads” until I decided to figure out why adblock borked the site. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malvertising

I’ve had LOTs of potentially bad ads from here when logged in to machines without an ad blocker installed. It’s not Cheezburger’s fault directly, but the ad networks they’re selling space to don’t seem to be vetting adverts properly.

I might cut my ad blocker off if you leave the photos on the first page large like that suddenly turned out to be lately and if you’d remove from of that side and below crap from the second page where we have to go to find out who made it, AND if the would put the lolmakers name back with the lol so we don’t have to go to the second page at all.

When you play nicely with ads and analytics, THEN I’ll consider turning off my ad blocker.

Here are some free Clues:

(1) You’re a global phenomenon. I’m not in the USA. Please stop serving up ads that are irrelevant to people outside of the USA. All you’re doing is wasting my bandwidth with an ad I’m never going to click on ;

(2) Your site has attempted to feed me malware-ridden ads in the past. That means you don’t go out to play until you clean up your act – and of all the sites I visit, Cheezburger has been the worst offender in this respect ;

(3) The amount of stuff you’re running in terms of advertising and analytics is getting ridiculous. People are probably going elsewhere because your pages download like treacle unless they use ad-blockers ;

(4) Forcing me to turn off my ad-blocker to create LOLs the other week was almost the final straw – don’t forget that LOL creators are providing the CONTENT that goes alongside your ads, and you’re getting all that for free ;

I appreciate that advertising keeps the hamster wheels turning, but it needs to be appropriate and proportionate – otherwise you’ll end up like all the other “cool internet sites” that went overboard with ads. You’ve got a good community here, don’t turn the Cheezburger Network into a wasteland of repeats and “best-of” compilations to chase diminishing ad revenue.

There are a few dutch websites that also ask us to unblock their ads, but they make and deliver useful information we just take in. A big computer user site recently introduced ad-free subscribtions, a good idea…

I agree, especially about the sheer quantity of the ads and the treacly slow page loads. I thought it was my ancient iPad but even my new, fast PC can’t handle it. Trying it at a public hotspot… Forget it. Your pages have way too much stuff going on (which is akso unattractive, BTW). And it seems like every time you roll out a change, theres just more and more clutter on the pages. So sometimes I’ll go for weeks without looking at the lolcats. Frankly I’d rather pay a modest subscription fee to be able to look at the site in peace! The malware problems are both shocking and ridiculous. When I first happened onto Cheezburger a few years ago there was a moderate number of ads, and I actually looked at their sites. I think you need to meet us halfway, with a reasonable number of non animated ads, careful screening of the ads to eliminate the malware problem, and a decent upload rate. I’d be fine with looking at the site with those changes.

I agree with the others here. Malware has lost me more computers than anything. And we can NOT afford to buy new computers because ads trashing current ones.

You want money, for real?

Here’s how? Bring back LOLMart and LOLMart shirts. I bought stuff from both, and I still have 50+ great LOL tee shirts that I can still wear.

The collectibles made you monies too by selling of cheez coins. I bought those too, in order to catch up a few friends on here that needed completing.

fbastage’s CATT collecty site went down in June, so I’m sure the peeps here would love the collectibles.

Offer something that people will actually buy to make your monies. The tee shirts were the most popular.

I have a monetized blog, but my ads are mostly links to health products, and some other things that actually HELP my fellow brother and sister. Some of my readers may use AdBlock, but I won’t hassle them about it. And banner is simple HTML that goes to legitimate health products sites, tee shirt sites, etc… Plus my content is related to anything promoted, meaning I’m talking about the item/s promoted.

Here’s how? Bring back LOLMart and LOLMart shirts. I bought stuff from both, and I still have 50+ great LOL tee shirts that I can still wear.

The collectibles made you monies too by selling of cheez coins. I bought those too, in order to catch up a few friends on here that needed completing.”

Second these points. I bought items from LOLMart, and still get a kick out of explaining my Magic Cheezburger to visitors. I didn’t buy any t-shirts (you never had them in my size) but I’d have bought tote bags or decorative pillows or greeting cards with those designs.

I was also an enthusiastic supporter of the Collectibles, and paid real money for Cheez Coins.

I must admit that this has come as a surprise to me, as I do not get many, if any ads on here, although I did when using the home pages Etc which was just too much, and full of malware,.. and no I do not use an adblocker, although I do not have sound on when I am on here so who knows, also I refrain from using the other aspects of the site now and stick to my own home page Etc.
I would like to suggest that although you are correct in saying staff Etc.have to be be paid, but do bear in mind please, that we also contribute towards the site freely…I have seen many cheezburger Lolz displayed on plenty of other sites, and do feel that it might be better to approach these sites for financial reward, rather than the members who actually make up the site. This is not just a site, but one of the best communities any one could belong to, it would be a shame to spoil that by trying to make them pay to contribute towards it.

This is an issue now because Apple is getting ready to introduce software that causes a problem with sites that allow ad blockers. So, the issue is with Apple, but they are the big boys and we are the sacrifices.

Note to Cheezburger: You were supposed to be a happy, laughing site, remember that. You are not a shopping center. What makes you think people would buy from the ads even if you showed them. Given the mess you have already made of this site, I imagine you would introduce so many ads we couldn’t even see the lols

Lots of great conversation here about ads, this feedback is SO helpful. One thing everyone can do to help in the short term is when you see an offensive ad (an autoplay ad, one you suspect of Malware) is to let us know.

Take a screenshot, note the page the ad was on and any other info. Send that to contactus@cheezburger.com and we’ll look into it ASAP.

We do NEED good ads to run the site, but we are working desperately to shut out the bad ones that cause a bad experience for our fans.

Um, question… How are people supposed to tell you if they suspect malware, ‘cuz… HEY! Malware! If you’ve been hit by malware there’s a likelihood you won’t be able to tell anyone anything. That happens with crashed computers, ya know.

From everything I’m reading here, it sounds like rather than trying to chase down bad stuff only after the fact you need to pro-actively find yourselves new ad suppliers, pronto. Like last year… If they cost more, well, think of how many viewers you’ll keep vs. how many you’ll lose if you don’t. What’s better – having 1,000 ads that only 2 people click on, or having only 2 ads that 1,000 people click on?

Malware doesn’t always crash computers. The most successful malware takes control of your machine and harvests information (usernames, passwords, bank/credit card details etc) or allows other people to use your machine to attack others.

This means that everyone serving out third-party adverts needs to make sure that they don’t dish this stuff out – and that they shouldn’t expect end-users to find it for them. By then, it’s too late.

Even if it weren’t for malware, I’d still have trouble with the flashing and/or moving ads. It’s distracting enough that there are all the other thumbnail ICHC content items on either side of the main page. When those move I find them distracting, too, but at least I can do something about the ads. If it weren’t for adblockers there would be very few commercial websites I could visit, so it’s not just ICHC. I haven’t been diagnosed, but if I *don’t* have adult-onset ADD I can’t imagine how bad it is for those who do.

Wherever I go on the internet there are ads to one degree or another. So far in the past 10 years I have never had a crash or fried puter or personal info invasion (knock on wood). I do not use an ad blocker but I pay moeny for a lot of protections in place for anti-everything programs that are constantly updating to meet new threats. While a good anti-virus program is a must, I also have an anti-Malware program that does its job when I look at the history of what it has blocked and quarantined. Nevertheless there is no way to totally protect oneself. Even major corporations and government entities get hacked and spew our personal data out to the universe. Giving up the interenet and going off the grid on everything else is the only way to be truly safe.

Having said that, and given I am a huge supporter of ICHC, the number of ads has exponentiallly increased since I joined in 2010 and the pages are a clutter **** (you supply the word LOL) So far I can still live with it and am fortunate to have very fast processors on both my PC and laptop, but loading pages with a lot of GIFs and ads slow me down also. I know this is a business, not a charitable endeavor and frankly I know you can survive without our original content by trolling the interent for content and posting vids, GIFs, etc. The unoriginal content has steadily increased on all the ICHC sites, cats, animals and dogs being an exception. But there are also a lot fewer users making LOLs as you have lost a lot of registered resident users for one reason or another. You are fortunate in your ability to tap into so much original humor from some very talented people and to keep losing those users is, in the long run, not a good thing for ICHC. That “real time” talent is what makes your site unique. Apparently the LOLMart and collectibles were taking up more work resource than they were worth. However, I do agree with putting in place some incentives to get casual users to register, contests to encourage people to make LOLs, and other possibilities. Everyone has to make their choice as to whether or not to continue to play on ICHC based on their personal experience, but so far you still have me as a big fan 🙂

Syl, if your anti-malware program keeps logs, it might be useful to the CheezIT if you were able to provide them with the cheezburguer.com site specifics, regarding what was blocked and quarantined…just a thought…although, taking this line of thought one step further, {shouting=ON}
THIS IS SOMETHING THEY CAN AND ***SHOULD*** BE DOING THEMSELVES, AL-FRIKKIN-READY
{shouting=OFF}

Ain’t no such thang as a free lunch. It’s ridiculous to expect that this site would be hosted/run for free. My adblocker is now turned off on the Cheez but I trust that you will maintain a certain level of decorum e.g. no auto-audio, no pop-ups etc.

No. You can get regular ads through just fine and still make your income from the eyeballs.

I has the Ad-Blockers to stop the malicious third-party ads with the Pop-Ups, Pop-Unders, Auto-Runs, strobing gamma-colored “YOU ARE A WINNER!!” Epilepsy inducers, hijackers, redirects, fake virus warnings, fake “update your Adobe or Windows or iOS” (I’m on an Android tablet right now…) etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.

I’m not turning them off unless you’re willing to put up a $500 Guarantee that one of your advertisers won’t try to slip some Malware through, and we both know that ain’t happening. Even a “Report this ad” button doesn’t work as advertised – after the redirect has triggered, when you go back to report it another random ad loads from the queue.

Where are the constructive comments I left on this blog a few days ago? Here are some more.
For the Chief Operations Officer and VP of the IT department: If I cannot log in on my ICHC home page because the display is too large to use the login button, then I will be forced to premiere my original content elsewhere, such as Youtube and my own websites. Apparently some users want to see more of my content.
For the Chief Financial Officer and VP of Accounting: I am surprised ICHC has failed to charge adequate prices to affiliate websites for the privilege of collecting clicks from ICHC content? Really? All this time? That’s a lot of clicks gone by and a lot of lost revenue.
For the VP of Advertising: Did you notice I recommend advertisers include cats and cat-related things in their ads? Ads on television are finally including cats. The TV shows are turning to the internet for content. The internet is still constructed of cats. A substantial number of catladies are responsible for buying a substantial number of non-cat-related things like homes, insurance, medicine, cars, food, etc. I would go so far as to say catladies are an untapped market. Catladies means anyone who has found room in their lives and accepted any responsibility for addressing the problem of homeless pets.
For the VP of Sales: Did you notice I considered paying $15 per year for an ad-free subscription including the LOLbuilder, favorites, photos, GIFs, sites, friends, messaging and comments?
And for the Chief Compliance Officer: No one is going to bully me into surfing the internet without Adblock. That’s rather like, surfing real waves without safety gear. Mahalo!

Hi Amy! I love your cute peeping animals! Th#r&e8217;ye way too cute! Love your idea of using fish balls for the panda & kitten! Now that I saw how you use the animals cutters, I really regret not getting one included in my last order list!

Hmm. You want me to turn off ad-block. Well, have you addressed any of the complaints I’ve had over the years?

I unsubscribed from the feeds due to all the “lol by unknown” stuff that was making the home page instead of lols by people who really are members here, and who don’t plagiarize from each other.

Can we tag our own lols to make them easier to find?

When we fave something, does the button indicate that it’s faved for more than 2 seconds?

Why are the colors vibrant before the lol is submitted, but noticeably duller afterward?

Instead of “fixing” what isn’t a problem, why don’t you fix what *has* been a problem, make sure your ads are geared toward people who use this site (once upon a time I, too, would click on an ad if it was cat-related in some way), give members credit for the lols we make, realize that for many years you’ve been getting plenty of free user-generated content from people who only ask for an enjoyable, hassle-free site… and then ask me to consider the matter of ad-blocking.

This JUST popped up on my computer from Adblock saying theres’s an “Acceptable Ads” program and Adblock was sold??
chrome-extension://gighmmpiobklfepjocnamgkkbiglidom/pages/acceptable-ads-announcement.html

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Ads are ok, it is all the javascript cookies and trackers and other possible sources of malware that they can carry to the computer that I object to. A passive ad on the page is just fine but not stuff that has the potential to bring harm to the computer.

If sites would learn this and stop all this javascript tracking etc then no adblock would work because the ad would just be another image on the page.

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Your site’s content is produced for free by it’s users, AND they create a separate yet equally entertaining community in the comment section, which some would argue is the best part of your site. If you didn’t change layouts like normal people change underware, you’d have a lot less to fund….just a server farm….which could be paid for with the merch you stopped selling, or minor sub fees for ad-free use, or any number of other approaches that numerous sites have used.

Your ads are often malicious, and no amount of reporting it makes it stop, so no, my ad blocker will stay in place until you start vetting your providers better. You’ve shown that you couldn’t care less what happens to us, so why should we care what happens to you?